Murkowski to Begich: Talk About Your Own Record, Not Mine

Republican Lisa Murkowski, the senior U.S. senator from Alaska, has largely remained tight-lipped about this year’s race for the state’s other Senate seat, currently held by Democratic Sen. Mark Begich.

But Ms. Murkowski says a recent Begich ad– in which a Begich backer says the two senators from Alaska voted together 80% of the time in 2014 – has prompted her to speak up.

“It’s one of those things where it’s like, I’m going to stick to my own voting record, and you can talk about your own,” Ms. Murkowski said in a phone interview on Thursday. No matter how the figure cited in the ad was calculated, Mr. Begich has cast votes opposing her position on issues that mattered to their state, she said, including EPA regulations, the stimulus package and the Affordable Care Act. “This is stuff that’s not sitting well with Alaskans,” she said.

Mr. Begich, who faces a tough re-election fight this fall, has been working to distance himself from President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership, who aren’t popular in this red-leaning state.

Republicans are set to vote Aug. 19 to determine which candidate will oppose Mr. Begich, and Ms. Murkowski said she doesn’t plan to endorse a primary candidate. “I have two good friends running against one another,” she said, referring to front runner Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s Director of the Department of Natural Resources, and Mead Tredwell, Alaska’s current lieutenant governor.

The third candidate in the GOP primary is tea party-backed Joe Miller, who prevailed over Ms. Murkowski in a 2010 Republican primary; she went on to defeat him in a successful write-in campaign later that year.

“My goal, my desire is to see a Republican elected to this seat, and I am going to work hard to do that,” said Ms. Murkowski.

Ms. Murkowski specifically challenged the line from the Begich campaign that Mr. Begich had served as a “thorn in the side of the Obama administration” throughout his five-and-a-half years in office. She said that Mr. Begich has voted largely in lockstep with the president and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, including on issues like EPA regulation and drilling where he says he holds independent positions.

“On the tough stuff, we just haven’t seen that pushback on the administration, and we see the negative impact on the state,” said Ms. Murkowski.

Mr. Begich’s campaign has argued that sending a Democratic senator to Washington provides the state an in with the Democratic administration.

Max Croes, a spokesperson for the Begich campaign, pushed back against the notion that Mr. Begich has fallen in line with the Democrats on every controversial vote.

On a vote where the two differed, such as the stimulus package, Mr. Croes said the Senator “isn’t shy” about what Alaska gained from the legislation, including a new hospital and broadband expansion in the rural part of the state.

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